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- Babysitting for Gyms. I know this is already done. All over the place. But not everywhere. And where it isn't done there is frustration. And so it was suggested that I figure out a way to make this service more ubiquitous. (Thanks Brad Bushman!)
- Electrical Safety. Talking with an electrician I noticed a pattern in the times when he or others were "hit." Basically the pattern was that the electricians would take precautions and turn off hot wires and breakers and then someone at a distance would flip the switch while they were working on something else. So the idea here is to figure out a simple way to make sure that electricians have local control over the heat of a given wire. (Thanks to Eric Estep, electrician for interview.)
- Dissertation Archives. Dissertations are ostensibly not only a summary of work on a certain topic but a source of important original research. Currently, however, they are largely hidden to the world because they sit in campus libraries, mostly unavailable. I think that everyone would benefit from having the dissertations made available to the world to search through and read as needed. This has to be done whether by me or someone else. (Thanks to Darrin Law for the conversation that sparked this thought.)
- NEPA and other laws can make actions for the benefit of the forest difficult to perform. Part of that is just paperwork! TurboTax has streamlined paperwork for everyone who pays taxes. But there are a lot of other activities, particularly activities that have to do with the federal government, for which the paperwork could be steamlined in a similar manner. (Thanks to Chad Horman for the information leading to this thought.)
- Bill analysis. It would be really nice to have congressional bills immediately digested, sorted, and indexed so that everyone could know what congress is working on. (And the information would also be hugely useful after the bills were passed.) I think congress itself and others in the area would be the first to want the information.
- Accelerated math. Most people don't want to homeschool. But many want their child to excel in at least a couple of areas. I believe that there is a gigantic waste of mathematical potential in our public schools. It would be pretty neat to have a private track for math or other subjects that would mesh with public school. The kid goes to school but leaves a period early for math. They get the benefits of normal school, but actually gain the math skills that will let them thrive in the science and engineering world.
- Language Preschool. So if kids are most able to learn a language as preschoolers are we missing out by not teaching them a language at that time? Gina has a whole curriculum for the purpose of teaching such a preschool that was prepared by Dr. McKee at BYU. (Thanks Gina!)
- Computer diagnostics for cars. So you get the lights going off on your dashboard but you have to take the car in to a mechanic to interpret them. Wouldn't it be nice if one gas station just had the computer diagnostics on sight and charged an extra 5 bucks for you to use it?
posted by Douglas H. at 8:08 PM
2 Comments:
I was just rereading this list and thinking about the accelerated math tracks. Magnet schools usually do just that. My brother, Crawford, has applied to four magnet each of which have a different focus (language, fine arts, technology, and math/science). The schools are half normal students and half special students who have applied to get in and are chosen by lottery. They take their normal classes with the other students and then focus mostly on their main topic. In the math/science one, for instance, you finish middle school with a complete extra year each of math and science than if you had just gone to regular public school. In the language one you come out fluent in one language and advanced in another. The best parts are that discipline problems disappear (you get kicked out if your grades drop or if you have behavioral problems) because you have to be a serious student to get in and you don't have to pay anything because they are public schools. Also, you get the finest teachers who are motivated to stay for good students without having to deal with all the normal crud in high school and middle school. Anyway, I just thought it's a cool answer to that problem.
Hi, Janssen. It's funny, it's easy to forget that a post from this long ago exists. Now that I'm looking over this post I see that a lot of the problems have been solved fairly nicely. Disserations , for example, are now often published in a freely available web-accessible format.
You do present a nice solution to at least part of that given problem.
It's fascinating that Crawford is in the position of choosing which direction to pursue so early on. I wonder how much the decision will affect him in the long run.
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